Workplace conflict management

WORKPLACE CONFLICT MANAGEMENT

Abstract
This article explains the meaning of workplace conflicts, or organizational conflicts, the causes
of these conflicts at work, and the possible ways of preventing, managing, and overcoming
disputes at work. Conflicts at work may also cause grudges among members of an organization
and ruin relationship and therefore the article also explains how to rebuild the relationships, and
solve the conflicts to ensure every member and staff are on the same page with each other to
create an environment where everyone works towards the achievement of an organizations goals.

Introduction
Workplace conflict can be explained as the disagreement between employees in an organization
or a workgroup, which is brought about by various factors, the main factor being the differences
between the employees or members of a workgroup. It’s a state of a dispute resulting from the
difference in opinions, interests, values, and goals which can occur between different levels of
management in an organization or members from the same level of management and
departments as a result of differences in opinions and strategic decisions.

Mary Rau-Foster, 2019, explains workplace conflict as the disagreements that arise from a clash
of perceptions, goals, or values in an arena where people care about the outcome. The breeding
ground for conflict, according to Rau-Foster, may lie in confusion about, or disagreement with,
the common purpose and how to achieve it while also achieving individual goals within an
organization. Also, the competition for limited (internal and external) resources will feed
conflict(Rau-Foster, 2019).

Conflicts can occur between various distinct members at a workplace with various differences,
called personal conflicts. Intergroup conflicts occur between different workgroups, departments
and various organizational levels. When disputes arise in the workgroups, these conflicts
described to be intragroup conflicts that may occur due to differences in opinions among the
workgroups.
Workplace conflict management

Decisions made by managers and the other administrators in the top levels of an organization's
chain may not be pleasant to the employees and staff in the lower chains of the organization
structure. In such an instance, there may arise disagreements and variations between the staff at
the top and lower levels of the organization's structure. Though at times the affected group may
not raise their concerns, the disagreements exist between them and the management, which may
be extended to the extent of causing hatred among the different staff and members of the
organization. This always lowers motive and productivity, especially for the affected workgroup
and employees.

Based on the nature of disagreement and discords, workplace conflicts exist in different types
and ways. They are grouped into three major types of conflicts, (“PON - Program on Negotiation
at Harvard Law School,” n.d.);

 Relationship conflicts. This type of conflict arises as a result of variations and differences
in personalities and mode or style of performance. This kind of conflict mostly occurs
when new people from different backgrounds are brought together to work together while
they do not know about the nature of each other’s personalities.
 Task conflict. This is the most common type of conflict at work that is likely to occur
often among employees and members of the organization. It occurs when the allocation
of assignments and resources may happen to be uneven, and certain employees or
workgroups feel that distribution of labor and the resources was not done fairly or
according to their interests and expectations.
 Value conflict. This is the third group of workplace conflict which occurs rarely when
people in the organization have variations in what they value and believe, ethics, religion,
and political standards.

To avoid workplace conflicts, the causes of the conflicts should first be identified, and after that,
preventive, management and control measures should be put in place to prevent and solve the
disagreements in case they occur in an organization, regardless of the type of conflicts or the
workgroup and members involved in the conflict.

Causes of conflicts at work.

Workplace conflict management

Differences and variations at work may be brought about and caused by many factors. This
section indicates the possible factors that may cause people to have conflicts at work and differ
in opinions and strategic matters.

 Bad, poor and inconsiderate management - The management defines the mode of
operations of an organization and determines the activities of each end every employee,
staff, and workgroups of the organization. Therefore, when the management is poor in
terms of skills, decision making, division of labor and allocation of resources, they make
decisions that are not optimal and satisfying to different members and staff. This may
leave them in a state of disagreements leading to work conflicts in the organization.
 Uneven treatment and discrimination - Due to various reasons, some members may be
favored in multiple ways, especially by managers and administrators, during activities
such as division of labor and allocation of resources and gain uneven advantages over the
other members. Conflicts arise between the favored group and the other members since
they feel that there is no fairness among them. Hatred may also occur between them and
tend to despise each other at work.
 Poor communication - Communication is a crucial element in ensuring an enjoyable and
favorable working environment. Poor communication leads to misunderstandings, which
may cause disagreements at the workplace when members fail to understand each other.
 Poor and unconducive work environment – Managers and administration may fail to
provide the right working conditions to their employees which might annoy the
employees and bring conflicts between them and the management. In most cases, this
even causes riots and demonstrations to demand better working conditions such as safe
environments, clean, better wages and enough working equipment and resources.
 Lack of equal opportunities – This may also be defined as the unfairness in the division
of labor, assignments and tasks. Some members may feel that they deserve similar and
same opportunities as others, and once they don’t get these opportunities, they may feel
offended and cause conflicts among them and other staff members in a quest to demand
equal opportunities.
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 Bullying and harassment – This is a major cause of conflicts at the workplace that
occurs when some staff members with powers over others might misuse their powers and
oppress the other members of the lower classes.
 Failure to address and solve complaints – Employees may raise concerns and matters
regarding their welfare in the organization to be addressed by the responsible
administrative staff. Failure to address these issues causes a lack of satisfaction to the
members affected which may bring about disagreements and conflicts in the organization.
 Overworking of members – Employees may have increased workloads assigned to them
to perform, at times, without adequate time to complete the workloads. This may cause
the employees to feel overexploited which can cause conflicts and bad relations.
 Lack of planning or and poor planning – Planning is an essential element in ensuring
the smooth running of activities in an organization. Lack of planning, or poor planning,
may cause poor utilization and wastage of resources, poor assignment, and division of
labor, and lack of uniformity at the workplace, which in turn causes disputes and conflicts
among different the members and workgroups.
 Personal conflicts – These are the differences between two or more distinct individuals
over some issues such as politics, religious beliefs, moral values, and different standards,
which might be the extent to the point of causing disputes among them.
 Leadership wrangles – Leadership differences cause disputes not only at the workplace
but also at the national levels and other sectors that involve leadership aspects. In most
cases, people may not be satisfied with the leaders selected, and in the case of election
systems, those who lose may cause disputes.
 Stress, pressure, and frustrations – Someone might be under pressure to complete
specific assignments or tasks, while others might be in stressful situations, and when such
people are disturbed or annoyed at work, they might be frustrated and fail to handle
various situations leading to conflicts and disagreements.
 Lack of ethics and morals – Some members of staff at the workplace may lack respect
and ethical behaviors to other members, which may cause differences among them and
lead to conflicts.
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In most workplaces and business setups, the above factors are the leading causes of conflicts
among the members who work together at the organizations and workplaces. Once the possible
causes have been identified, it is easier to handle conflicts and has measures in place to prevent
conflicts at work.

Ways of workplace conflict management.

Reports on workplace conflicts statistics and management indicate that both the organizations
and its members are negatively affected by these conflicts. A percentage of people and members
involved in disputes at work end up with sicknesses, project failures, personal attacks, loss of
jobs and poor performance among other effects of workplace conflicts. Workplace conflicts,
therefore, has to be managed to avoid the possible consequences and impacts that may arise. As
discussed below, the following ways and techniques can be used to manage, handle and prevent
conflicts at workplaces and business setups.

i. Effective communication. When communicating, members of staff should ensure that

their messages are clear, understandable and considerate in ethical issues to avoid
misinterpretation and misunderstanding of messages.
Effective communication can also be used as a means of solving conflicts when they arise
by talking through issues and finding solutions to the possible problems until every
involved member is at peace with each other. A standard model and language of
communication should be established to avoid differences.
ii. Acknowledge the existence of existing challenges. As the saying goes, acceptance is the
first step towards healing. You have to accept that problems might, or indeed exist and
these challenges may bring disputes among the members. Upon acceptance, these
challenges should be identified and pointed out to find ways of dealing with and solving
the problems.
iii. Address existing challenges and concerns raised by employees and staff. Challenges
identified should be addressed immediately and solutions provided to solve the
challenges. Ignorance of challenges discovered only adds more problems to the existing
ones, especially when issues and concerns raised by employees are not addressed. Once
they are addressed and solutions provided, it creates satisfaction and the employees feel a
sense of care from the involved administrators regardless of whether the issues are solved
Workplace conflict management

immediately or at a later date. It creates calmness to know that issues identified and
raised are being handled.
iv. Let individuals express their feelings. Employees should have platforms and ways of
communicating their views, complaints, and suggestions about how they feel about what
should be done to improve everybody’s satisfaction at the workplace. It also creates a
sense of care and promotes a good relationship especially between the management and
the employees, thus avoiding conflicts.
v. Effective and careful listening. While ensuring effective communication, active
listening and paying full attention during conversations also helps to manage conflicts by
having to hear clearly what both parties have to say, hearing their opinions and
understanding their point of view. It ensures that relevant communication is maintained
on a topic and makes it easy to find solutions to the problems.
vi. Ensure effective planning. Planning ensures that everything and everyone is in order
according to the laid out plan. Planning should be done by skilled and experienced
personnel to ensure effective planning that makes optimum utilization of resources, equal
and fair distribution of labor and fair assignment of opportunities. Planning helps to
account for most of the activities thus avoid confusion, disputes and disagreements.
vii. Have a set of rules on conflict management and prevention. Rules help to keep people
in line by setting the regulations on what should be and should not be done, and the
repercussion of breaking the rules. All the rules should be made aware to every employee
and staff at the workplace. The rules should be easy to understand and should not be so
cruel to the point of annoying the members.
Such rules should include regulations to curb foul language, unethical behaviors and what
to do in case disputes arise or seem to arise. Matters should be taken up with the
respective departments of handling conflicts such as with the Human Resource Managers.
viii. Create and ensure conducive and better working conditions. To show concern for the
different members and employees at a workplace, ensure that they have a pleasant
working environment and that their needs are met to keep them motivated. Enough
working gears and equipment that are functional should be provided, better wages and
incentives should be given to the employees for the appreciation of the work they do.
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This is a driving force towards optimum delivery, motivation and satisfaction that
prevents and solves conflicts in case they arise.
ix. Ensure fair distribution of assignments and avoid excessive workloads on
employees. No members should be favored or given special treatment not unless they
deserve to; fairness should be maintained among the employees to ensure satisfaction.
Employees should also be given cognitive tasks and objectives to fulfill and given ample
time to carry out the tasks. It also helps to avoid stress and pressure at work, therefore
preventing possible conflicts.

It is the desire of everyone to work in a peaceful environment without conflicts and disputes.
These measures dramatically help in avoiding and managing conflicts to provide the best
working environments where members relate positively to each other.

Rebuilding relationships after conflicts at work

Conflicts at work bring about various impacts including damage of property in cases where
conflicts led to fights, demonstrations and strikes. It causes people to get injured, lose their job
opportunities, alter the operations of an organization and create a bad image of the particular
organization to the world. It also causes poor performance at the workplaces and among many
more impacts, it breaks relations among members and workgroups involved in the conflicts.

Members of an organization or a particular workplace are supposed to work together in unity

with the same goals and focus. A good relationship, therefore, has to be restored after conflicts at
the workplace to ensure continuity towards achieving the desired goals. This section indicates the
various ways of rebuilding trust issues and relationships among members after disputes at work.

 Forgive each other and move on. For the activities to continue as usual, forgiveness is
the first step in rebuilding the relationship among coworkers involved in a conflict. One
should not allow their ego to overrule the need to rebuild a stronger bond among
themselves. It creates peace of mind and helps to let go of the issues that had caused the
conflicts.
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 Find common ground. Identifying a comparable basis upon which the parties or
coworkers involved in the conflict can discuss can help to set a foundation for rebuilding
the relationship. The fact that the coworkers and the parties are in the same organization
or workplace is a basis enough since everyone has come together at that workplace with
a common purpose of achieving the designated goals and objectives. Upon realization of
the common grounds, differences can be solved and everything can move on as usual.
 Increased communication. Communication is the key to solving any problems. After a
conflict, communication among the involved parties creates a bond that rebuilds the
relationship and overlooks the differences.
 Involve a third party. There are experts with a specific set of skills in problem solving,
resolutions and relationship build-ups. These people can be involved to use their
expertise in bringing back together those engaged in a conflict. In this case, the parties
should both be present and the third party takes them through a series of events that help
in bonding back together.
 Ensure you keep your promises and be reliable. This helps in building trust among
coworkers, which rebuilds and strengthens their relationship.
 Give respect to the work and observations of colleagues. Respect to one another and
whatever they do ensures that there are no conflicts in the first place. After a
disagreement, relationships are built back when the involved parties are mature enough
to have respect to one another even after whatever happened among them. It shows
concern for each other's affairs which rebuilds their relationship.
 Avoid spreading and gossiping about the conflict. Chatting about a problem does not
make it any better, but in fact, makes it worse to find a solution and rebuild the bond
between the parties involved in a conflict. I possible, others should not even know about
the conflict and instead, a solution should be found and everything goes on as usual.
 Be supportive of each other. This shows concern and helps to create a better
relationship than before. It has been observed in many scenarios where people involved
in a conflict solves the issues and becomes best friends with a closer and stronger
connection than before.
 Have a positive mindset. Everyone should eradicate the negativity among them and see
the good in them and the other people. This helps in overcoming the differences and
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bring people together with a healthy, positive mindset, which strengthens their
relationship.
 Speak directly to each other. Facing each other helps in addressing the matters at hand
on one. Every party gets to express their views and opinions and finally come to a
standard view which creates satisfaction to all the involved parties and hence builds their
relationship even stronger.
 Conduct gradual motivational and coaching lessons for everyone. These lessons help
every staff and a workplace to have a session where they can learn together on different
matters. It brings them together and maintains a bond between each and everyone at the
workplace.

Just like any other conflict, it is reasonable to have conflicts at work due to the differences in
opinions and various matters. The disputes should, however, be handled and managed as fast as
soon as possible so as not to affect the operations. Its good to understand that conflict should not
be extended to the point ruining relationships, causing injuries and damages. Differences
themselves can be taken as opportunities that can be exploited for the better good and benefit of
everyone else.